DOGTOOTH

Three adult siblings live in complete isolation on a large compound with their parents. They are taught that a motorway is a strong wind; the sea is a leather armchair. When Younger Daughter asks for the phone at the dinner table, she’s passed table salt. Kept in perpetual childhood, their days are strictly regimented and filled with a cautious curiosity. Meanwhile, Father leaves every day to work a high-level factory job, and Mother locks herself in her room to speak on a hidden phone.

While known for his English language films The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite and his latest hit, Poor Things, it was Dogtooth (2009) that catapulted visionary Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos to international recognition. “I remember thinking: This film feels like it’s inventing something,” reflects Galerie curator Lukas Dhont. “Reinterpreting and reframing words. I felt fluid afterward.” 

Following a live screening, actor Angeliki Papoulia (Alps, The Lobster) will reflect on her first collaboration with Lanthimos, and one of her earliest film roles as Older Daughter, sharing anecdotes from the production of this surrealist tale of family dysfunction.